Ok…I have stepped off into the shallow end. I can’t afford to dive off into the deep end right now…lol.
Anyone who knows me at all knows I am a Marine. Once upon a time, I spent ALOT of time with this rifle platform. But boy have they changed. I was never really overly impressed with the platform. It was very good for the role it played but I was never really an M16 fanatic.
In the last few years, the ‘black guns’ have gained in popularity in a big way. A lot of that has to do with the modular way the guns are made allowing for a person to put his or her rifle together just the way they like it.
But, in my opinion, the thing that has made this type of rifle platform explode in popularity is the rumblings that say the government doesn’t want you to have it. That’s the quickest way to get someone to want something they don’t already have?…tell them they can’t have it. My dad bought a semi-automatic handgun and a shotgun a few years back because of the rumors that said you might not be able to get them in the future…lol.
Anyway, how my AR journey started was through another interest of mine actually. I love most anything that has to do with World War II and it’s history. I was walking around the gun show one weekend and saw a stripped lower receiver that had a sharks mouth and eyes molded into the magazine well. I thought, “that kinda looks like the nose of an AVG P-40. I could so paint that up like a Flying Tiger and it would look AWESOME!”
The price tag laying on it said $129. I had no idea if that was a good price or not. I decided to go home and do my homework (google it.) I found that this thing was in fact a machined receiver made from billet aluminum. The manufacturer’s website had the MSRP at $299. You can get a quality forged lower receiver for $50-60 if you look around so $129 isn’t getting off to a cheap start on an AR15…but it looked soooo cool!
I decided that, being as it was priced that far under MSRP, I would do it. I went back to the gun show and found that the tag that I saw on it actually went to the forged receiver right next to it. Their price for this super cool Flying Tiger receiver? $339. NOPE…lol. Maybe on another build later on. See? I think I have the bug…lol.
All this served to plant the bug fairly firmly in my mind that I wanted to build an AR15 though.
A few weeks later, I was doing some t-shirts for a local gun shop with a new logo. I called him up and asked, “if I run these t-shirts at cost, will you run me some AR parts at cost?” He said, “sure, what are you wanting?”
So, a week or two later, me made the trade. I gave him a few dozen t-shirts and he handed me a stripped lower receiver and a drop-in trigger group. I would say the rest is history but ‘the rest’ will actually be a series of blog posts chronicling my journey through building my first AR15.
I will be posting as I assemble this rifle and I will post links to where the parts can be obtained and for how much. If anyone has any suggestions or advice for me, do not hesitate to offer it up.
I am going for what I am referring to as a ‘quality budget build’. I could get off cheaper on some of the parts but cool factor makes me pay just a little more on some pieces and a quality reputation makes me pay more on other pieces. Especially on what I call the ‘foundational’ parts.
By the way, the above mentioned lower receiver can be found here.
Y’all stay safe and keep a round in the chamber…
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